Britton's first (and hopefully last) trip to the ER

 

I was once in an office speaking to a women, or should I say trying to have a conversation with a women, but I could hardly complete a sentence before having to reign Britton back in the office, pull him off whatever structure he was trying to climb, or take away whatever object he was about to throw. The women commented that I have an active son. After leaving the office several times to retrieve Britton from his escape attempts, the women said to me, "You have a VERY active son." I believe she was trying to politely tell me that my two year old is out of control. I was not offended because I know it is true. While I am very grateful that Britton has yet to throw huge tantrums in public or attack other children as I have seen other toddlers do in public, I feel that I am constantly chasing him and trying to keep my fearless son alive. So as a mother of a VERY active two year old, I am amazed that there have not been previous trips to the Emergency Room from his attempts to jump down stairs, climb on counters, jump off couches, climb on dressers despite my constant attempts to stop or prevent these activities from happening. Britton loves to climb and jump and will use any object as a stool to climb onto something higher. I do find it ironic that his first trip to the Emergency Room was not caused by any of these activities - or at least from climbing on something he should not have climbed on.

We had just finished dinner and Britton was riding his push bike in the living room while I was washing dishes. Darren was helping a neighbor move and it was almost time for Britton to go to bed. Britton "fell" off his bike and wanted me to kiss his arm to make it feel better. As fearless as he is, he always wants a kiss even for the most minor falls or bumps, but that's what moms are for and I love it. We have a "bar" style counter that separates our kitchen from the living room with two stools at it that we using for eating. For some reason instead of coming around to the kitchen to receive his kiss, Britton decide to climb up on one of the stools. I could not reach him across the counter, and he is not allowed to climb on the counters, so I told him to climb down off the stool and come around to the kitchen. Britton started to climb down the stool "safely" just as we taught him to do; belly on the stool, holding on while lowering his feet to the rails at the bottom of the stool. He does this several times every day. As I'm watching him climb down, the stool tips backwards (he must have leaned his weight back), and he falls backward landing on the carpet (fortunately our apartment is mostly carpeted) but brings the stool with him. The stool's seat is rectangle shaped (unfortunately), so it got him pretty good in the forehead. I run out of the kitchen to find Britton crying/screaming in pain and fear (producing the worst sounding cry you can imagine) and covered in blood. I was terrified but reassured by the fact that he was conscious. Blood was everywhere, but luckily I was able to remember from my first aid training that head wounds bleed a lot so it probably looked worse than it really was. Despite this reassurance, I was still in panic mode and tried to dial Darren's number at least three times before successfully making the call. I told Darren to hurry home because Britton had split his head open. Darren reminded me to apply pressure, and he was home in less than two minutes. We carried Britton to the car. He was still crying a lot when we got in the car, but he stopped crying once we were driving and started pointing out cars, trees, and his "messy hands" that were covered in blood which was reassuring.

I dropped Darren and Britton off at the pediatric Emergency Room and parked the car. When I arrived at the ER, they were trying to take Britton's temperature. For some reason, we can never get a temperature read under his armpit so eventually they had to take a rectal temperature which he was not happy about. After checking in, Britton started playing catch with the icepack they had given him for his head. He was obviously feeling better. When the doctor came over, Britton started throwing the icepack back and forth with the doctor. The doctor discussed the options with us - stitches or glue. He recommended the stitches since Britton appeared to be a very active boy; he could already tell just by a few minutes in the same room. He also said the stitches would leave a less noticeable scar.

I think the worst part of the stitches was when they had to numb the area. They injected the needle several times to fully numb the area, and Britton had to be wrapped up in a sheet like a straight jacket. The children's specialist had an iPad and was able to distract Britton a little with Cars and Thomas the Train, but once the stitches began, Cars or Thomas weren't enough. Luckily, she also had the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally App on the iPad. Britton is obsessed with Mickey and loves this app - for the longest time it was the only children's app I had on my iPad. He had been wailing and squirming when they started stitching up his forehead, but once he heard Mickey's Clubhouse theme song, he stopped screaming and squirming. I was even able to get him to sing along. The doctors and nurses were so impressed how calm he was once he was able to watch Mickey's Clubhouse. Britton and I have the entire app memorized so I think it was not only distracting but comforting to have something familiar for him.

As soon as the stitches were over, Britton was back to his normal self. Running, jumping, and climbing as fearlessly as ever to our relief and dismay. I'm glad he was not traumatized by the experience but would love for him to be just a little more cautious. Most of all, I'm just glad that he's alive and only has four stitches. I love my little, VERY active boy.

Tahoe Trip

Where can you play at the beach and in the snow on the same weekend? We had never been to Tahoe and we decided to plan a trip in late April hoping there might still be snow. We arrived to 80 degree weather and not much snow on the ground so our plans of sledding changed to an early morning hike, an afternoon at the beach, and an evening rock climbing. It was a full day and a lot of fun, but I was still a little sad that Britton hadn't had a chance to play in the snow. So on our way home we drove up to the closed ski resorts at the summit and found a patch of snow. Britton had a blast sliding down the hill on his bum with dad while I volunteered to stay dry and take pictures on our picnic blanket.

 Our hike above Cascade lake. Britton was the youngest hiker on the trail. He walked about half of the two mile hike with his little walking stick he found, and rode on Dad's shoulders about half of each way.

 There was a waterfall above the falls. Britton wanted to play in the waterfall, but luckily we were able to satisfy his desire for water with a smaller stream near the falls.

 Britton loves, loves, loves the water. The ocean, lake tahoe - both freezing cold, but he will play in the water for hours. He threw sand, kicked water, blew bubbles, and had a blast. I love the goofy face I caught him making in this picture. After the beach Britton's favorite phrase was "fun water." He said it in a funny voice with a crazy look on his face, but we couldn't catch it on camera.

Sliding down the snow hill. Again, again! Not sure how many times Dad and Britton slid down that little hill, but Britton giggled and squealed with pure joy every time.

Britton's 2nd Birthday Party and My First Cake Decorating Attempt

Another unpublished post! I'm farther behind than I thought. 

So Britton's first birthday was way low key - family only and cupcakes. It was nice but I felt like a little guilty for not making it a bigger deal or at least making him a real cake. So to make myself feel better (because really does a two year old care as long as there is cake?), I decided to throw Britton a race car themed birthday party for his second birthday. I thought he might appreciate it a little, and I had fun putting it together (though I couldn't have done it without Darren's help).

I stole most of the ideas off Pinterest, but I did come up with the idea of the cheese stick roadsters. The idea of decorating a cake terrified me, but I wanted to use the frosting set I had requested for Christmas and decided Britton's birthday was the best excuse to start using it. I chose the easiest design I could find on Pinterest. Who makes two or three tiered cakes for a toddler's birthday anyways or even likes fondant? Darren definitely helped with the cake, but I'm still pretty proud of it and it even tasted yummy. Britton loved the race cars on the cake, and to my surprise he even blew out the candles on his own this year (without spitting on the cake either). I was very impressed and realized my baby is now a toddler for real.

The snack spread. We had the party at a park with a playground near our apartment.

Darren helped me decorate the plates with race car checked centers and edges while we watched a movie the weekend before the party. They turned out cute.

I have this huge set of cookie cutters we received as a wedding gift with random shaped cutters like feet, dinosaurs, lions, and race cars - glad I discovered the race car when searching for a heart shaped cutter for valentine's day.

These are the cheese stick roadsters. Darren thought it wouldn't work but the toothpicks just barely fit into the holes of the Ritz crackers enough to stick in the cheese filling of the crackers.

Apple cars with grape tires - idea stolen off Pinterest and inspiration for the cheese stick roadsters.

The cake! Shaped like a figure eight (4 round cakes - stacked two deep and cut to piece together)  with a road in the shape of 2 and cars driving on the road. I made the little checkered flags. The cake was almost a disaster when we realized we should have made four round cakes instead of two and were scrambling to cook and cool the second cakes just hours before the party.

Goodie bags for Britton's friend. The tags said "Thanks for racing to my party!" They were filled with race car pencils and stickers.

January Catch Up

So apparently I never published this post, so my "January Catch Up" is now more of a reflection :) 

The picture below is Britton with his boy cousins on the Goring side. Four boys between the ages of 18 months and 3 - they had a blast playing together over the New Year holiday and Britton discovered air hockey. We can't go to Nana and Papa's now without playing at least a few rounds.

This is the bike that Santa brought for Britton this Christmas. He loves riding it and I love it when he rides it in a diaper with the bill of his beanie to the side; he looks so tough :)

So this is why parents do not allow toys at the dinner table...apparently the dinosaur was hungry too!

What do you get when a 20 month old little boy dresses himself? Two shirts, no pants, and mommy's boots - but at least the colors kind of go together right?

Wow! A picture of just mom and dad! I can't remember the last time one of these was posted to the blog - probably before Britton was born, but I can't blame Britton since I choose the pictures for the blog. Darren hit the halfway mark of dental school and his school threw a swanky party downtown with a 1920's theme. We had a great time at the party while our neighbors watched Britton for us. Thanks to the Eliasons for watching Britton, Tess Burton for making the bird cage for my hair, and Taisja Maxfield for styling my hair and supplying the fedora that Darren wore to complete the 20's look - glad to have great friends.

Valentine's Cookies

Britton helping in the kitchen.

 Britton loves helping with dishes, sweeping, and cleaning the counter tops, but his favorite thing to help me with is making cookies. I let him roll out the dough and cut out shapes. He actually does a pretty good job, but I have to watch him closely or he'll eat all the dough.